Reviews for Philosophy of Mathematics and Mathematical Practice in the Seventeenth Century

The average rating for Philosophy of Mathematics and Mathematical Practice in the Seventeenth Century based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-09-20 00:00:00 Kastoras Kastorakis This is a well-written, interesting read on the history and development of mathematics during a particularly volatile time in the development of the field. The book is not particularly accessible, however. Not being a mathematician myself, I found the first 10-15 pages of each chapter particularly difficult to follow, as Mancuso demonstrated technical nuances of various proofs that were at issue. I do not intend this as a criticism, as I'm certain that if I understood what was happening in the proofs, then the rest of the chapters would have been more rewarding. However, I found that I could glean what was at issue philosophically from the rest of the chapter, which I found fascinating. Again, not being a mathematician, I am unsure how accessible the second half of each chapter would be to a mathematician, as it is pretty difficult philosophical material. This makes the text something of an odd piece. Unless one is both a mathematician and a philosopher, this may not be the text for you. Again, that's not to say that it's not worth reading unless you're both, but just prepare yourself for some dense material. Here are a few nit-picky points. Mancuso does quotes from primary sources often, which is great, but he often quotes in the original language without providing a translation. I understand that this is a trend in some academic writing, and while I have passable French reading skills, when large passages are quoted it still takes me time to work through them. My Latin is significantly worse than my French, and while the Latin quotes tend to be shorter, it does unnecessarily break up the reading of what is already dense material. Also, throughout the text, Mancuso provides an interesting narrative about the events of the seventeenth century, but there is literally no conclusion to the book. It just sort of ends. While there are themes that run throughout the text, and arguments made, they are all left open at the end of the book. It would be nice to have some brief note at the end that tied all those themes together.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-08-02 00:00:00 Stuart Yager First of all, a lot of this book is composed of articles published in other places, but given its current price, it's still worth owning. It's a very dense read, but I found it to be an incredibly rewarding piece of scholarship.